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Environmental News,
Opinion, and Art
June 15,
2006
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 The View From Here By Bridget Crocker I wonder how you ended up with the marble headstones overlooking the tree-lined Utopian grid of a vision you carried along with your wide open dreams. You, Lucy, and you, Edgar, What did you do that was noteworthy enough to warrant such a view? Did you, without fail, sweep clean the porch outside your shop door every morning? Did you deliver the babies of stranded Crow women, too poor to make the trip home to the Reservation? Did you throw grand parties with tables from which guests brandished views of the wild Bridgers or Spanish Peaks, laughing as they tipped champagne glasses? Did you keep horses so that your girls could learn to ride sidesaddle, while your boys saw the country astride rugged stallions? What power did you hold, to privilege such a parcel among the plentitude of others you came with; the ones who kept your garden, and nursed your children, while you spent afternoons lazing under a perfectly fenceless blue sky. Remember Willy who polished the brass of your gateposts? And Effie who prepared your afternoon refreshment, complete with coffee spoons? Even now in death, you are privileged with a view of the colony you created from a few thousand trees and beaver skins. It’s only a matter of time before your marble monolith, clearing the view for those behind you. This, despite the fact that your money was left expressly to maintain your vantage, specifically to keep others from treading under your piece of sky. Bridget Crocker dispatches for Lowbagger.org from Ventura, Calif. |
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